Jane Tyska

I began making pictures with a Kodak Brownie at age five on a kindergarten field trip to the Bronx Zoo and haven’t stopped since. I’ve been a photojournalist at the Oakland Tribune/Bay Area News Group since 1997, covering many big stories in that time. Filled with a passion for my craft and for people, it’s a privilege to document history as it unfolds.
I’ve won numerous awards for both stills and video from the National Press Photographers Association, California Newspapers Publishers Association, Society of Professional Journalists, Associated Press News Executives Council, Bay Area Press Photographers and many more, but it’s connecting with my subjects and trying to make a difference in my community that is my biggest reward.
When not pursuing photojournalism, I can be found rocking out on bass and drums in several Bay Area bands.

A Tuareg nomad leads his camels at sunset at the Festival in the Desert in Timbuktu, Mali on Jan. 7. 2011. The festival, which is based on the traditional gatherings of the Tuareg people, began in 2001 and now features international as well as local artists. (Jane Tyska/Staff)

Tiyesha Meroe, left, and Kim Webber, center, both of Oakland, react as they learn the news of Johannes Mehserle's sentencing at Frank Ogawa Plaza in Oakland, Calif. on Friday, Nov. 5, 2010. To the right is Anne Weills, of Oakland. Mehserle received a two-year sentence with time served in the shooting death of Oscar Grant on Jan. 1, 2009. (Jane Tyska/Staff)

A fire lit by Occupy Oakland protesters burns at Broadway and 16th Street on Thursday, Nov. 3, 2011 in Oakland, Calif. A group took over a vacant building on 16th Street earlier, prompting police response. (Jane Tyska/Staff)

Ion Banner catches air just before wiping out during the first heat of the Mavericks Surf Contest in Princeton-by-the-Sea, Calif., on Saturday, Feb. 13, 2010. 24 of the world's best big wave surfers competed. (Jane Tyska/Staff)

Monks participate during South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) ceremonies in Thimphu, Bhutan on April 28, 2010. (Jane Tyska/Staff)

Youth Pastor Nathalio Gray, right, holds a picture of recent homicide victim Ramona Foreman as community members and activists gather on International Boulevard at 92nd Avenue for a peace rally in east Oakland, Calif. on Saturday, Dec. 29, 2012. Nearly 100 local clergy, community activists and others held a press conference and rally to protest the gun violence in Oakland. (Jane Tyska/Staff)

Betty Polk of San Leandro waits for her hair and nails to dry at the Hayward College of Cosmetology in Hayward, Calif., Wednesday, August 14, 2002. (Jane Tyska/Staff)

Bhutanese refugee Benu Mainali, left, comforts his wife Leela as she gives birth to their daughter Shreya at Highland Hospital on Sunday, June 26, 2011 in Oakland, Calif. Registered nurses Dolores "Dee" Johnson, Ruby Ann Cubangbang and Fabian Diaz, left to right, assist. Shreya was born at 6:48pm, weighed 8 pounds, 3 ounces, was 21.5 inches long and became an American citizen at birth. The Mainalis immigrated to the U.S. in May 2010 after spending the past 19 years in a refugee camp in Eastern Nepal. (Jane Tyska/Staff)

A pedestrian walks past a mural on International Boulevard at 29th Avenue in the Fruitvale District of Oakland, Calif. on Thursday, March 16, 2012. Showers are expected through the weekend. (Jane Tyska/Staff)

Longtime riends and neigbors Helen Taylor, 80, (left) and Dorothy Jones, 70, are one of a handful of residents who have returned to their block in the 8th Ward on April 27, 2006, in New Orleans, La. (Jane Tyska/Staff)

Darlene Vanderbrook takes a break after salvaging some of her few remaining possessions at her home in New Orlean's St. Bernard Parish on Sept. 28, 2005. "I had to come here today," Vanderbrook said. "Now I can see I don't have a home." (Jane Tyska/Staff)

John "Chevy" Shevenell, of Castro Valley, displays his prosthetic eye at Alta Bates Medical Center in Berkeley, Calif., on Dec. 29, 2006. Shevenell was diagnosed with ocular melanoma in 2004 and died in 2009 as the cancer spread throughout his body. (Jane Tyska/Staff)

Oakland Task Force 4 Search and Rescue team member Capt. Jim Gill wades through water as they do a sweep of the flooded area of downtown Napa, Calif., on Dec. 31, 2005. (Jane Tyska/Staff)

Rocio Zaragoza, right, receives a hug from fellow group home resident Courtney Louie, 18, in Union City, Calif., on Oct. 2, 2004. Zaragoza was born with venus malformation, which doctors in Mexico tried unsuccessfully to correct. (Jane Tyska/staff)

Oakland Raiders' Michael Huff (24) and Joselio Hanson (23) take down New Orleans Saints' Devery Henderson (19) during the second quarter of their game at O.co Coliseum in Oakland, Calif. on Sunday, Nov. 18, 2012. (Jane Tyska/staff)

Cristian Valle puts on his prosthetics legs as he and his wife Blanca prepare to go out to dinner with other Iraqi war veterans during a Disabled Sports U.S.A. outing on Aug. 2, 2006, in Sacramento, Calif. (Jane Tyska/staff)

Oakland police arrest a protester in his tent as they disperse the Occupy Oakland camp in Snow Park on Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2011 in Oakland, Calif. Several arrests were made when people failed to leave upon police orders. (Jane Tyska/staff)

Kristi Ouimet and her son Matthew, 21 months, sleep late at night after she administered peritoneal dialysis to him at their home in Antioch, Calif. on Friday, Nov. 2, 2012. This type of dialysis uses fluid to help stretch his abdomen so it will be large enough to receive a organ transplant from an older child. Ouimet typically only gets about four hours of sleep a night as she has to drive Matthew to the UCSF Medical Center for dialysis treatment six days a week. Matthew suffers from primary hyperoxaluria type1, a liver disease that also affects the kidneys and can affect other organs if untreated. He undergoes dialysis six times per week, and is on the donor list awaiting both a liver and kidneys, which must come from a deceased donor. (Jane Tyska/Staff)

San Francisco Giants' catcher Buster Posey is airborne after tagging out San Diego Padres' Miguel Tejada at home plate during the first inning as he tried to score on a double by Adrian Gonzalez during the first inning of their game on Friday, Oct. 1, 2010 at AT&T Park in San Francisco, Calif. (Jane Tyska/Staff)

Haitian orphans play jump rope at the Dezman Fleury girl's orphanage in Leogane, Haiti on Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2010. Contractor Sherman Balch, of Pleasanton, recently founded Extollo International, a non-profit Christian humanitarian organization whose mission is to build earthquake and hurricane-resistant structures in Haiti. They also employ and train local workers. (Jane Tyska/Staff)